International Censorship

Events

Members of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign on April
23 sent a letter
to Chancellor Helmut Kohl protesting the recent prosecution of the
top CompuServe offical in Germany. He has been indicted because
the online service allowed access to Internet newsgroups and web
sites containing sexually explicit pictures and games with Nazi
symbols. See the GILC press
release and CNET's coverage.

On April 18, the German Parliament began debating "Federal Law
to Regulate the Conditions for Information and Communications
Services (IuKDG)." Final
Version of the bill from December 20, 1996 . Discussion
of bill by Christopher Kuner, Esq.

Bavarian prosecutors announced on April 16 that they had filed
an indictment in February against the top Compuserve offical in
Germany because CIS allowed access to Internet newsgroups and web
sites with sexually explicit pictures and games with Nazi symbols.
See the CIS press release and CNET
coverage.
In 1995, CompuServe caved to German censors and dropped access to
200 newsgroups. See the 1995 CompuServe press
statement and the list of banned
newsgroups.

The German Federal government has pressured Deutsche
Forschungsnetz, a major academic Internet provider into blocking
the Netherland-based server XS4ALL because it hosts RADIKAL
magazine. See WIRED's story.
In January, German authorities filed charges against a member of
the Communist Party of Democratic Socialism, Angela Marquardt, for
linking to the magazine. In September, several service providers
temporarly blocked XS4ALL following a threat by the Public
Prosecutor General. See the Internet Content Task Force (ICTF)
Press
Release of September 3, 1996.

UK service providers association agreed to self-censor.
The UK Goverment had sent a letter
to British Internet service providers demanding that they drop 133
newsgroups. Service providers VBCNet
and WaveRider
issued responses to the letter. Check CNET's coverage
of the letter and response.